This project provides for equipment to support current and future research on two classes of aerospace structures, rotorcraft and spacecraft. The general rotorcraft research addresses vibratory rotor loads and rotor impedance measurements, general rotor-airframe stability testing, and general rotor-airframe vibration testing. Tests for specific rotor types are addressed as well. These include aeroelastic stability tests, vibration characterization tests, and tail cone vibration tests. For spacecraft structures research, a scaled portion of a space structure, representative of a space structure, will be tested to validate finite element analysis techniques. The equipment provided completes two test facilities under construction at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a model rotor impedance test facility, and a shake test facility. A power drive system and support pylon, an articulated drive shaft assembly, and supplementary data acquisition equipment are provided for the first facility. Transducers and other hardware as well as signal processing, modal analysis and data reduction equipment are provided for the second facility.
